Resident Evil Requiem offers a break from the series’ recent tradition of offering first-person horror by also allowing players a third-person perspective. In an interview with GamesRadar, director Koshi Nakanishi has revealed that this option was provided for players that might find the first-person perspective too scary.
In the interview, Nakanishi noted that a first-person perspective was chosen for Resident Evil 7 in order to make the game more immersive and frightening. However, looking back at this, Nakanishi also acknowledged that some players might have found the title too scary to finish it. To address this in Resident Evil Requiem, Nakanishi decided to allow players to swap between first and third-person perspectives.
“Looking back at Resident Evil 7‘s first person perspective, I implemented that as a way to make it more immersive and more scary than ever before, which I think most you know media and players agreed it was an incredibly scary game, but it was possibly too scary,” Nakanishi said.
“I think some people couldn’t handle it, and either couldn’t finish or didn’t even start it. And that’s something that I look back on thinking that, you know, I want to make sure that people can enjoy this game. So if you started the game off in first person perspective, and you’re finding it’s too much, then third person is almost a way to step slightly back from that level of horror and make it slightly easier to deal with by having the character on screen as a kind of Avatar of yourself.”
Nakanishi has also spoken about how Capcom is stepping up its horror game with Resident Evil Requiem. Discussing the Gamescom 2025 playable demo, he mentioned that the studio wanted to tap into scary moments like the start of Resident Evil 7 and House Beneviento from Resident Evil Village to develop some of the creepier parts of Requiem.
“There are similarities to that section for sure,” said Nakanishi, referring to the start of Resident Evil 7. “I think each Resident Evil title has these sort of standalone parts where maybe you don’t have the weapons you’re used to. We can increase the horror feeling with that.”
“We kind of structurally brought that horror aspect to the forefront right at the start of the game, in order to gel with the characterization of Grace of someone who you know is completely unfamiliar with and not expecting to be thrown into such a horrible situation.”
However, with Resident Evil Requiem, Nakanishi didn’t want to simply copy and paste the horror aspects of House Beneviento. Rather, the upcoming horror title will feature gameplay mechanics that allow players to defend themselves. This will seemingly be incredibly important since Capcom wants to make sure that the upcoming title is scarier in how it presents a claustrophobic gameplay segment featuring an unarmed protagonist.
Resident Evil Requiem is being developed for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and is slated for release on February 27, 2026. As you wait for the full game to come out, check out the Gamescom 2025 trailer.